It was a prototypical late summer evening in exurban Detroit. The sun floated low in the sky and bathed the world in an idyllic golden warmth that reflected in the patio door and the floor-to-ceiling fixed-pane windows that lined the red brick exterior wall of Luca's house. Beyond the trees and manicured lines of the dense shrubbery to the east that walled off the relative quiet of the subdivision, the distant, muted whooshing of tires on asphalt and the occasional muffled car horn signaled the steady flow of weekenders returning from points north in preparation to face another week of the urban grind. The sharp, throaty snort of a Jake brake cut through the noise as an eighteen-wheeler slowed to take the nearby off ramp. From a couple houses up the street, the muffled monotone grumble of old man Harrison's lawnmower sang the song of its people.
The heat of the day was slowly beginning to yield to a gentle breeze out of the northwest. It carried the wonderful aroma of steaks on the grill coming from the backyard of the new neighbors who had moved into the house behind his. He'd noticed the wife's Mercedes often parked at the Huntington bank branch he passed on his way to work. Based on the attire in which he often saw her—heels, pants suit or a conservative but flattering knee-length dress—conservative yet sexy—his head canon said she was probably in management. The husband, he had heard, was a chef at some upscale restaurant in the city. This was a couple whose acquaintance he surely should make.
But that was a venture for another day. Tonight, he had other plans.
Luca sat in a patio chair on his back deck, ankle crossed over knee, cradling a snifter of Hennessy in his left hand and his cell phone in his right. He absently thumbed through his Tumblr feed, taking in the steady stream of attractive women; mostly redheads, mixed in with a smattering of blondes and brunettes. Every now and then, he'd tap the heart icon under one of the posts. Had there been nothing else for Luca to look forward to, this alone would have been a perfectly satisfying way to bring the weekend to a close.
His cell chimed. He set the snifter down on the squat wooden table next to him and tapped the notification.
It was
her
.
"Just got my luggage and I'm waiting for my Uber. Be there soon. Kiss kiss."
"Can't wait," he tapped as quickly as he could. "Been looking forward to seeing you all week."
Telltale dots announced she was typing something back. He couldn't take his eyes off the screen.
"I bet you have. I've missed you too, sweetie," came her response. Then, more dots. "I promise tonight will be worth the wait."
A shiver of anticipation skittered down his body. Luca fidgeted in his chair, uncrossing his ankle and tugging at the crotch of his cargo shorts. He drew in a deep breath and pushed out a long, trembling exhalation through his nose as thoughts and memories of Kylee flooded his imagination. Her delicate feminine features, her Titian hair and faint freckles that probably made her "cute" as a little girl, made her positively ravishing as a grown woman. Her perfume... the way every outfit she wore contoured and accentuated her breasts and highlighted her tantalizing cleavage... and dear god her legs. She always wore heels of some sort; espadrilles or some other strappy wedges on more casual occasions, or stiletto boots or pumps when the evening was headed in a more night-on-the-town direction. It was as if she knew exactly what he liked and exactly how to push his buttons to get him worked up.
As if it were a difficult prospect.
He glanced up from his phone and watched as a lone robin flew in and perched on the deck rail near the steps that led down to the grass. It stayed for a few moments before darting up over the house and out of sight.
He shifted again in his seat to make some room for the anticipation of Kylee's arrival building between his legs. After a few fruitless attempts, he was about to stand up when his phone chimed again. He fumbled in haste to see what she'd said and nearly dropped it.
"Nothing to say to that, Luca?" Then the dots again.
Luca was in the middle of thumbing out a response when Kylee's next message interrupted his train of thought.
"What's wrong? Getting a little hot and bothered?"
He deleted what he was typing and went in a different direction. "More than a little." An eyebrow arched. A coy smile crept across his lips. "If you had any idea how bad I want you right now..."
Dots.
"Uh oh," she teased. He could almost hear the flirtatious lilt in her voice. "Sounds like I could be in some trouble."
The anticipation had metastasized into a deeply aching need. He wasn't even in her presence; she was miles away, no doubt sitting in the airport lounge turning the heads of any red-blooded male passersby. He imagined a coquettish grin curled across her lips as she savored the effect she surely knew she was having on him. How much more would he be aching once she was there in person? How long would she drag it out and let him marinate in his arousal before she finally gave him what he wanted?
More dots.
"Or..."
He hung on that single word.
"Maybe you're the who's going to be in trouble."
Fuck
.
His hand slid down to his crotch and he kneaded the swelling mass growing inside his shorts.
Dots.
"Uber's here. I'll be there in about 30."
Luca tapped the first few letters of a response. "I'll be wai—" He stopped. He wrinkled his nose and blew out a sharp, dissatisfied sigh as he deleted what he had started to type.
Come on, Luca
, he chided himself.
No shit you'll be waiting. What the hell else are you going to do?
He mashed his eyes shut and balled his left hand into a loose, trembling fist and gently bit his knuckle.
His phone chimed again. His eyes slowly fluttered open.
"Looked like you were going to say something."
He tipped his head back and pulled in a contemplative breath, watching as a massive twin-engine airliner slowly descended on approach to DTW like some ungainly airborne whale that looked like it might fall from the sky any minute. Just as the landing gear began to extend, he forced his attention back to his phone.
"I can't begin to tell you how much I want to hold you in my arms." Then, almost as an afterthought, "And I'm looking forward to seeing where tonight leads."
